Porous materials are used as separation membranes, adsorbents, fuel cell separators, low-dielectric materials, catalyst carriers and the like. Thereamong, separation membranes are utilized in a wide variety of applications including artificial kidneys and membrane plasma separators in the medical field and water treatment and carbon dioxide separation in the field of environmental energy. Further, since membrane separation process does not involve phase transition from liquid to gas or the like, it is drawing much attention as a separation process which requires smaller energy load as compared to distillation and the like. Moreover, adsorbents are also utilized in a wide variety of fields including medical supplies such as blood purification columns, water treatment, petroleum refinery, deodorization and decolorization.
Polymethyl methacrylate has a high optical transparency; therefore, it can be suitably used in an optical device. On another front, by utilizing its excellent biocompatibility and specific adsorptive properties for proteins, polymethyl methacrylate can also be suitably used as a separation membrane of an artificial kidney comprising a polymethyl methacrylate hollow fiber membrane. Such a separation membrane of polymethyl methacrylate is prepared by utilizing the stereocomplexes of polymethyl methacrylate.